My Rotten Brain

The brain rots.

Well, not really rotting as in decaying into smaller pink sponges (that's how I think a brain is like). I have found myself to be significantly inadequate in using my brain to process thoughts - in other words, I'm quite a moron lately.

Well, I don't have specific stories to illustrate the previous notion. It's just that lately I've been thinking and intending to update this blog and every time I tried and sat down to pour my inner gold, my brain drew, well, if its not nothing it's mostly dusts.

I think I read less nowadays. I watch TV less as well.

I have no opinion on anything these days.

I just bought the latest TIME Magazine and today, I just started to force myself to like the intellectual channels on Astro, i.e. Discovery Science, TVIQ, National Geographic, etc. Hopefully, this effort will spark some thoughts and I can start writing again.

Sigh.

I need to go back to Uni quickly. My brain is starting to fatten up.

And as do I.

Siiiggghhh.

Finally, Another Entry

I just finished reading my first novel ever, The Da Vinci Code.

Yes, my first novel ever.

I don't read novels. Well, before this anyway. Apparently my unexpected long vacation has provided me just the motivation sufficient to push me till the last page of the book. I don't think I need to write my own review of the book, as the purpose of this current entry is the very idea of it - reading literature, lengthy one that is.

I started my interest in literature through comic books, and that was back in early 1990s. Hong Kong comics were to me like insulin shots to diabetes patients. I'm not very sure of the effectiveness of the analogy applied but I just wanted to tell you that those comics were very important to me. As I progressed through the beautiful works of Tony Wong's Alam Perwira and Dewata Raya, I then familiar myself with the arts and literature from other countries, Japan (Dragonball, Doraemon) and Europe (Asterix, Tintin). As fancy as I attempted for it to sound, those are just comics, which were immensly distracting and consumed a significant amount of my allowances plus some beggings to my dad.

Was it wasteful?

I often wonder whether I would have benefited more if I substituted Eiichiro Oda's One Piece with John Grisham's The Client? There's this myth that comics are a waste of time and money. Novels, however, are good for you. Or at least reading novels does portray some level of sophistication of yourself - that's what I think anyway.

I just finished The Da Vinci Code. It's just another book. I believe I response better to graphics. Information is better presented in colours and funny lines.

Isn't that a universal thing?

I thought people taught us to use more graphics in our presentations, i.e. Power Point stuffs. Use better colours and designs because people responded better to it. Don't make it dull by filling up the slide with Arial texts on a black background. Why? Because we won't find it interesting. Who would? Uninteresting people, maybe.

Just as they find novels interesting.

Hi

I got nothing.

I Miss Being a Kid

Intan: Haih, cepatnya dah sampai hari Isnin balik.
Bibik: Ya laa, kat sini rasanya hari-hari lalu memang cepat. Kalau kat negara bibik hari tu lalu rasanya lambat sangat.
Intan: Ye ke? Kat negara bibik sekarang tahun berapa?
Bibik: ....
NJB: Intan, sekarang kat Indonesia tahun 1996.
Intan: Oo, lambatnya.
NJB: ....
Intan: Ye ke ni?

My Kids Will Have Super Powers

There’s a number of ways on how I usually start writing an entry, i.e. personal experience, deep observations, retrospection, etc. Recent entries have been mostly of personal matters (well, basically this is my blog so of course it’s personal). Anyway, my most preferred approach is writing an entry off reading some interesting stuffs (my kind of interest of course) from TIME magazines or Reader’s Digests. And today’s entry is of that kind.

Sigh. What a long and unnecessary introduction. In fact, I could have just started it off like this:

There’re a few issues that highlight my interest from one of the recent issue of TIME magazine, i.e. fighting racism in Hong Kong, microfinancing in the US, slaves trade in Africa, Stein’s awesome view on today’s communication, etc. Nevertheless, this entry is aimed to two particular ones that really caught my attention: why genes aren’t destined to us and mm, well, climate change stuffs (gotta be my favourite topic).

Genes.

So, let’s start with genes – it contains the codes for our cells to produce proteins for our body to function – more or less an adequate definition. Darwin said that it takes a series of many generations for the genetic code to change – hence, our great great great great great great great great great great great great great will eventually 100% free from our blood disorders and other diseases.

However, it does not have to be that way anymore. There’s this thing called ‘epigenetic’, which is something that exists in our DNA, that can be, err, altered, I think, if I use the term correctly. Well, basically, the epigenetic thingy can be stimulated so that the following can be done: decrease obesity, reduce risk of short life span, switching off the unwanted diseases, etc. Hence, our children may not have to battle undesirable sickness, obesity and other unwanted stuffs - pretty cool. And owh, by the way, whatever we do, eat or breathe, can affect our future born generations. Both male and female and not necessarily during the pregnancy period – that’s right, even now as you’re reading this.

Come to think of it, pretty soon we can surely add on to our genes with things that we do want, i.e. good health, stronger athletic body, my handsomeness (I shall make it available for public use!), X-ray visions, etc.

Aisey (FCOL for Malaysians, I think. Or is it OMG?), I’m tired. Will continue on to the next issue later. Have a good week!

In Making Friends

Lately I've been spending a lot of time with my sister, the youngest of the siblings, Intan. She's in Standard 2 now - she's going to be 8 this April. Spending time means taking her to school and piano lessons (soon swimming classes), buying her school essentials (for this first few weeks anyway), helping her with her homeworks, go to 7-Eleven to buy Vico, etc.

So, one evening, while helping her with her Mathematics homework, and while she's writing something in her notebook, in a particularly different tone of voice (which meant that she was being a bit serious rather than making another silly joke), she told me something about school - that she doesn't like recesses.

Then a little bit of tears ran down her cheeks.

Hu-oh.

She told me that her close friends (or just one friend? I don't listen really well) are now prefects and they have to do their duties during recess period, which means Intan have to spend her recess time alone. So I ask her about her non-prefect classmates, particularly her deskmate - she said they have their own friends (or she just simply doesn't know. I'm probably just making up the reason because I still don't listen really well).

I was put in a position where I really have to be careful what should I tell her. I mean, making new friends wasn't that difficult for me before (I think). So far in my life, I was blessed with convenient situations or contexts, where making new friends wasn't too hard.

Wait.

It was difficult for me in some situations. Oh well, that is another story.

So I thought, "What would I do in those kind of situation?". Or maybe better, "What would a cool dude do in that kind of situation?". How about a girl instead? How do I know. Do guys make new friends easier than girls?

She didn't stop doing her homework, as in, writing stuffs in her notebook - some of the answers were wrong by the way. Maybe she couldn't focus right. She occasionally wiped off her small tears. It's not like she's really in depress about her small issue, based on the small amount of tears. I didn't say much though. It was a pretty dark-ish kind of conversation. You know, the type where it is slow and has a lot of pauses.

Was she looking for a solution from me or just simply expressing her feelings about this stuff? Well, my laptop was far from my reach - I bet I could google at least a list of possible solutions for this matter.

So, on top of my head, I told her, in a different tone of voice of course (I'm guessing it was the 'full of wisdom' kind of voice), that she shouldn't be bothered by it - I mean this recess issue. I continued, "As long we're nice to all the people around us, nice things will happen to us. Sooner or later good friends will come and spend time with you,". Something like that. Of course in the real script I had to use some Malay words. I don't speak English all the time with my sister.

Anyway, it was a pretty general advice. In a way I thought it wasn't useful enough. Was it sufficient? Should I told her just to try and ask her deskmate if she would want to spend the recess together? What if she rejected her?

Sigh.

I then told her about the wrong answers - for the homework I mean. She corrected it. Made a joke. She laughed. And we moved on.

I hope she wouldn't mind I'm writing her problems out in the public here heheh.

Conscience in Review

Stuff is a New Zealand's media website. It's the homepage for my Firefox browser. There's a column on the middle right of its front page which lists the most viewed articles published (I'm guessing it's updated daily).

Anyway.

The top 3 articles of the day are as follows:

1. Lindsay Lohan in sex tape.
2. Megan Fox stripped for Armani.

and at number 3: NZ powerless to help Haiti.

It's a little bit sad when the viewing priority shown by the public is towards girls stripping off their clothes, either on photograph or in video, above hundreds of thousands of people died of Mother Nature's anger.

Let's spend a few seconds to pray for them. Al-Fatihah.

...

Sadly, I myself, too, went to the first two articles first before I click on the story about Haiti. Sigh.

And oh, at number four: Hugh Hefner is down to one girlfriend. Tragic.

Imagine Me on the Cover

I just found that I misplaced my stack of underwear in my boxes left in Wellington. Consequently, since I arrived home in Bangi about a week ago, I survived with a couple of boxers - it has been difficult for me.

Hence, I went underwear shopping. Exciting.

You know, I'm completely not comfortable with underwear shopping. Men's underwear that is. I was wandering inside Parkson in Alamanda, and there's this section for men's underwear. I'm pretty sure all of you realize the packaging cover of the underwear boxes. Masculine men in their tight underwear.

Who are they targeting? I am very not attracted to the image on the boxes, unless they put a girl next to the guy - in underwear too of course.

While I was browsing the men's underwear section, going through boxes with illustration covers of different naked well-built men in underwear of different ranges: minis, short briefs, full briefs, bikinis, trunks, etc, I just can't help but think that while I was going through this torture, I'm getting gayer by the minute.

Seriously, what's with these ridiculous packaging covers?

Here's a sample:


I would love all future men's underwear to be produced in packaging such as follows:


Where can I find JBS underwear?

Pointless

I really got nothing. I can't think of anything of use to fill up a good entry. Maybe tomorrow. We'll see.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year.

Approaching the New Decade

Coming into the final week of the year, there's a lot of stuffs rushing into mind. I mean, you know, things like:

1. Achievement of the year.
2. Worst humiliation of the year.
3. Most memorable experience.
4. People you spend most of your time with.
5. Things that you miss out.
6. The list of 'what if'.

And so on.

Let us all do that now. One week of retrospection. I'll come back to you soon.

My Academic Life

Here's a little bit of something about the path I've taken throughout my academic life. It's a little bit personal - but stories, great or not, are better off told than kept. I know it's not Oprah-worthy but who knows, someone might benefit from it, and thus, we can learn from the bad stuffs, and the goods in life can be spread. It's pretty much the very purpose of this blog. If you like it, that's great and I hope this blog can bring some useful insights in your life. Otherwise, skip through - it's that simple.

Well anyway, I first enrolled an architecture student in 2005. Everyone did. I mean, here in School of Architecture, Victoria University of Wellington, all first year students have to register into first year architecture before going into separate courses: i.e. building science, interior architecture, landscape architecture, etc. Nevertheless, my intial intention was architecture anyway.

I got into building science in the second year - my second choice. I wasn't really good in my first year. I didn't do that well in my second and third year either. I've to repeat a third year paper which I did in the second trimester of the following fourth year.

Sigh, difficult times. I only have myself to blame. Mixed up priorities and just simply lazy.

I pretty much overhauled my fourth year here. Well, not that I did that great anyway in the two papers that I took in my fourth year, but enough to get myself into the postgraduate honours programme in the following year. I'm guessing my effort in developing relationships with the lecturers helped a bit in my application into the programme. I'm pretty sure I couldn't simply rely on my below average scores to get into that programme.

Nevertheless, my honours year is nothing like my undergraduate years. I was better motivated, better discipline, better hardwork and by the end of the year, I assure you, hardwork pays off - with a pinch of luck. I got lucky with one of the papers and earned myself a better average scores for my honours year - hence, Bachelor of Building Science with First Class Honours.

I'm guessing luck played a greater role than I imagined. I can never find a better group than my classmates during the honours year, a supervisor who was passionate into helping me to reach my goals, a programme coordinator which by far the best academician I have ever met, 'clients' which were extremely helpful for all my selected projects, etc.

The lesson here?

Hardwork pays. Of course, on top of that, we all need a bit of luck and efforts outside the classrooms as well as continuous gratitude to everyone around you and the Almighty God.

And owh, always be happy about everything you do, somehow.

This may not be the best recipe for success in academic life. Nor that achieving good grades is supposed to be the ultimate goal. I am happy because I met many extraordinary people in my honours year and the depth of intellect I have gone through these variety of people. People make things great, and that you can't find solely in your textbooks.

Nevertheless, I am also happy because I have set my mind on these things, and thank God I was rewarded.

Alhamdulillah.

Victoria University of Wellington Graduation Parade.

The Beehive.

Graduates gathering in Civic Square, Wellington.

Speech by the Deputy Mayor of Wellington.

My graduation moustache.

My parents.

If you're still in school, have fun and study hard. If you've just graduated, congratulations. If you're already in the workforce, be prepared because I gonna take yours.

Graduation

I've just finished my Bachelor of Building Science with Honours from Victoria University of Wellington. I did well. I'm happy about it. Graduation events were excellent. Photos will be uploaded soon. Thought I might just give a preview.


Upload here or Facebook?

Towards Another Chapter

Just a short note to remind me to talk about it in the future.

I had a great day. And it's not because of the obvious eventful reasons, i.e. graduation, family and stuffs.

But I shall talk about it some other day - and it's about identity crisis.

In the mean time, it's now approaching to a new year, or decade. Either way, reminisce and prepare yourself for the coming year.

How to Write an Entry

How do I really start writing an entry? I mean, do I have any kind of ritual before I commence into the writer's mode?

This opening would probably work better if someone else asked me those questions. But hey, I need an introduction - an imaginary third party would suffice.

Anyway.

And oh by the way, this may not apply all the time. The concept behind it works as just a general recommendation rather than a strict rule - or something like that, whatever.

So.

Step 1: Find an original work.

It's almost like plagiarism - but no, it's more like a review - in my own perspective - which may heavily influenced by the original work - hence, almost like plagiarism. In other words, I take someone else's work and process it into my own. This ranges from movies, articles, other people's blog entries, books, etc. For example, I found this article a little while back, entitled The 10 Emotions That Will Change Your Life. The yellow-ish (or golden I'm not sure)-coloured phrase means that you can click on it and it will opens a new page - hence, you can read it yourself. Well, by doing so, you have now completed my first step of this process. Now, lets move on.

Step 2: Find an interesting paragraph/section/part of the work.

Well, even a sentence could work. It really depends. What I do here is just that I'm trying to find something that could trigger some thoughts inside my head. For example, there are 10 emotions listed in the article: gratitude, hope, joy, serenity, interest, pride, amusement, inspiration, awe, and love. So, for this step 2, I've selected 'pride' as the interesting section of the work. Why? Because it is my own damn choice. You do your own entry if you don't like it.

Step 3: Develop that particular paragraph/section/part of the work.

This is the part where I explain why the particular part of the work interests me. In this case, the section about 'pride' in the original article, there are two reasons: it is among the short ones, and it is the most intriguing - being it as one of the seven deadly sins.

Here's a sample of the development.

It seems alright to have that sense of achievement about ourselves when we've hit a goal. At times, yes, we can be a little (or very much) smug about it. This is the tricky part. Of all the 10 emotions, pride is the only one is listed in one of the deadly sins. Well, it is a bit more dramatic to refer to stylish phrase such as the 'seven deadly sins' although it is originated from the bible. I'm not sure about in Islam though - I googled and found that there's 70 of them? I think the Quran presents the topic about sins in a different manner compared to the commercially sound 'seven deadly sins' in the bible. Nevertheless, the point is, pride is one the sins - and to where we draw the line to practice a good amount of pride - assuming pride is a good emotion to have?

"We are all meant to shine, as children do. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us, it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others,"

By the way, as you can see, in order to develop this section, I also refer to another written work somewhere else. You know, moulding them together. It's like Jack invented sugar and Lokman invented flour, and with those two things, I invented the cake - hence, an original work of my own, sort of.

Anyway, I always like the principle of Wasatiah in Islam teachings. The balance. Don't overdo things. We all know we shouldn't be reckless but don't overdoing it by being a paranoid. We should be understanding but don't be too much of accepting. Pride. Too much of it would lead to arrogance. Being too quiet about it does not benefit others in inspiration of greatness. Our strong presence of greatness liberates others to do the same.

Okay, something like that for a development.

Anyway.

So there's only three steps of making an entry: find a whole frame of picture, pick a spot on the canvas, and develop. I would thought it can be something like 5 steps to a great entry thingy, or something like a recipe - 15g of desire, 200ml of determination, etc. Somehow it becomes this long draggy entry, which doesn't appeal that well even to myself.

Maybe I shall write another one later. Hopefully a better one.

In the mean time, if you're somewhere around 10 years old of age, this may be a useful guide to write, well, anything really - I think. I'm not too sure. If it helps, good. But if it does not and it results to you failing an assignment because of following this crappy guide, well, you've been warned.

Hu-oh Another Film Review

So, what do I have to say for tonight?

I just watched New Moon on cinema today. Total crap. Well, .. not really. That is just rather exaggerated. But it is bad. Just, not that bad. You know, it's like having an extremely cheap chocolate ice cream that you bought from a particularly strange old man with a thick moustache selling out of a strap bag (and not a chiller!) on a sunny afternoon.

...

Maybe that is also an exaggeration. I just want to put that picture inside your head.

But it is a bad movie. Not total bad. Maybe not spending $10 for it. Maybe 26 cents is more like it.

Okay that is also an exaggeration.

My serious estimation would be $1.20, which equals a moderately cheap ice cream.

My only comments, for now anyway, is that the movie should have a lot less of Jacob and Edward and more of Alice and other hot vampire chicks (I'm not that very into Bella). Instead of stripping down Jacob (apparently for gazillion times), please put Alice in a bikini. Instead of slow-motion Edward taking the whole century to walk across the parking lot (and apparently he once flew in nanosecond saving Bella from getting hit by the van in the first movie), please put Alice in a bikini, in slow-motion, with other hot vampire chicks.

Remember Bram Stoker's Dracula? Remember the hot sexy vampire chicks in almost-see-through white sleeping gowns smothering Keanu Reeves? Now that is a good vampire movie. Oh, and also Dracula: Dead and Loving It. Yum3.

Other than that, New Moon is still bad. Over-development of the relationship between Bella and Jacob, under-development of the Volturi (more of Jane and Felix please), Bella is a slut (a vampire, a wolf and then what? Frankenstein?), Edward is a moron (you've lived over a hundred years, please show some sense of intelligence. No wonder you still stay in high school.), Victoria's plot is pointless, Charlie is okay, I thought the bike-riders were described by Edward in the first movie as evil and why didn't that fat guy raped Bella in that empty back dark alley?

Fuh.

Hence, that is my review for The Twilight Saga: New Moon. Nevertheless, I bet the book is good. Unfortunately, I don't read those kind of stuffs.

I'm Still Here

I just remembered.

Four days ago, it's been 3 years since the blog started in November 2006.

After the first year, I thought, "Hey, I'm still here. Blogging seems fit for me. No one else would want to listen to me rambling about nonsense in real life,".

Up to the second year, I found that I've written more frequently, received more responses, better English writings and more serious and sensible contents (presumably). Apparently, I grew more committed to this.

Now, reaching the third year of this blog's life, I just think that it is simply amazing that I'm still here. I haven't done the math yet, but I'm pretty sure the rate of entries has decreased. Not that I was planning to quit (well, sometimes) but I always thought that sooner or later I'd lose all reasons to continue this stuffs.

Maybe I haven't finished yet.

Why?

I'm glad you asked.

Because now, I have a super aim - to save the very human civilization.

9 Stuffs of the Week

I haven't really put enough thoughts in naming this type of entry but I'm planning to list down stuffs that interest me in recent, well, weeks maybe - or months, I'm not really sure yet. I like number 9, hence the selected number of items. Top 10 is, well, you can find those elsewhere. Another reason for this such attempt is because it's easy and does not require much effort on writing. Cheap shot for updating this blog.

Maybe this is kinda normal for any blogs. And I think I did attempt such thing before.

Oh well.

1. Defying Gravity by Idina Menzel. It's a song, from the musical 'The Wicked'. I first heard this song from the latest episode of Glee (Yes, I'm still watching it. It does have some good musics.). I googled the original song in YouTube. Found and completely hooked. Ahh, the love for broadway music.

2. Disney's Year of a Million Dreams campaign advertisements. My favourite: Tina Fey as Tinkerbell! Others include Gisele Bündchen as Wendy, Rachel Weisz as Snow White, Scarlett Johansson as Cinderella, etc.

3. I'm reading Lou Marinoff's The Big Questions, and some other books about philosophy, logic and er, well, cheese. It's pretty sweet. My cup of tea anyway. Some of the big questions: How do you know what's right? Are you guided by reason or passion? What is love? Can anyone win the war of the sexes?

4. Time Magazine: Issue November 23, 2009. The best inventions of the year: teleportation (an atom anyway - human teleportation is still impossible.), tweeting by thinking, solar shingle, bladeless fan, cyborg beetle, high-speed helicopter (you know, like Airwolf), a super swimming suit that outraced Michael Phelps, a fashion robot (real creepy) and other cool stuffs.

5. Zeitgeist: Addendum. Well, as you can read from the previous entry. I just gotta love the norm-challenging stuffs. Radical!

6. As long as Tina Fey is on 30 Rock every Friday, she'll always be in this list.

7. Stewie's joke to Brian, "Take your index finger and your thumb, and lightly grip the base of your tail, and run your fingers along the length of your tail." in the latest episode of Family Guy.

8. This sentance has three erors.

9. This list.

Food and Money

I gonna try to write a couple of movies review for this entry. I don't think I have written any movie review in this blog before. Nevertheless, there's always the first time. These two movies I just watched have, well, reached into my whatever inside this hollow masculine body, or head, that screams, "I think I should share this!".

It's a couple of documentary movies: Food, Inc and Zeitgeist: Addendum.

Food, Inc (2008).

This is a documentary film about, well, food - mainly industrialized food industry in the United States. You can find reviews all over the internet about the specific details of this movie. If you read the book "Fast Food Nation", this movie is something like that - with motion graphics.

This movie can open our eyes to what people in the industry do to our food - not the ones you can get from a small friendly butcher house down at Newtown, maybe. This is not the standard hygienic issue about picking up the meat on the dirty floor, throw it back into the cooking pan and serve it to the customer thingy. That is just automatically implied - simple plain unethical people who should be thrown in jail and continuosly raped.

This movie exposes what corporate people do to maximize profit in the meat industry in the United States - to the very source. Due to my inability to focus throughout the movie, I can point out two major things:

Animal abuse - I heard that one of the things that a human being should once in his or her life is to visit an industrial slaughterhouse. You do the math - how would you kill 5,000 cows a day, with least cost? I wonder how is it different in the halal meat industry.

Food cost - It's cheaper to buy a fast-food burger than a healthy lunch salad and broccoli.

Well, there are other things on how small farmers are inable to compete with the giants to provide respectable meat supply, E. coli bacteria, war on national health, etc. The message is simple, really, for me anyway: Do think about it whenever we go a fast-food restaurant, or a supermarket to buy packed meat, try and have a thought where did the meat come from. Do we even have the ability to control it anyway? Do we have the voice to do so?

They will all still do it for profit.

Which comes the next movie: Zeitgeist Addendum (2008).

While the previous movie tells about food, this movie, instead, shows about where money comes from. It opens with the very fundamental weakness in the monetary system that is currently heavily manipulated by the strong corporates. It continues to show how the strong corporates maintain its power on the monetary system and by destroying the economy of the weaker countries. And yes, it is all about profit. This movie leads to eliminate the monetary system and propose a resource-based economy - a moneyless society, and it's named as the Venus Project.

If you find the reviews published around the web about this movie, there's a lot of mixed responses - mainly opposing the idea. Nevertheless, the key thing from this movie is to simply open our minds. Does the monetary system today have been beneficial to the human kind? Can it be developed to fairly serve everyone?

"To see if we cannot radically bring about a transformation of the mind. Not accept things as they are - but to understand it, to go into it, examine it, give your heart and your mind with every thing that you have to find out. A way of living differently."

-Jiddu Krishnamurti-

I like the idea of the moneyless society. Optimistic nonetheless. This is quite similar to my previous entry about guns and butter. Until people start to focus on producing butter, the transtition into a moneyless society is impossible. Try and watch the movie. It's available online anywhere. My advice is not to plainly accept everything - but to sit back, have a cup of coffee and have a thought or chat about it. This is about the future that our children will live in and perhaps, we can do something about it - one voice at a time.

Find the movies and enjoy.

Guns and Butter

"We can do without butter, but, despite all our love of peace, not without arms. One cannot shoot with butter, but with guns."

Well, that was a speech by one of Hitler's closest associates, Joseph Goebbels, during the rise of the Third Reich. Well, as you can see, I'm trying to make a dramatic start to this entry with a speech quoted by the most famous group of evil known to the world.

I found this theory, or actually it's just a model, in macroeconomics stuffs - guns and butter. To put simply, this model states that a nation chooses between the two: invests in military or invests on production of goods or both at determined ratios. Although I'm not very sure whether this is still commonly applied or perhaps it has evolved into a more complex model for the state of economy today. Nevertheless, I don't want to talk about this economic model in particular - just the concept it represents.

Religions aside, we're put in this world to live. Back then, as human civilization started since the stone age, we wake up, hunt, eat, sleep and the cycle continues - at least that's how they depict it in television. Today, we wake up, earn money, buy food, eat, sleep and plus any other stuffs you'd like to do for fun. Well, the point is, back then, there were no guns, only butter - I think. I'm no historian to confirm this.

I'm just trying to say that to the very basic needs of human civilization, we only need butter. Guns are just the power created by human for human so that they can have butter without having to make them themselves. Today, the more power you have, the more butter you can get. It has reached to the point in time, making butter is not as important than making guns.

Well I actually wanted to talk about money. As in, guns is a metaphor for money as the spending power - if you haven't catch my drift.

So, today, the more spending power you have, the more butter you can get. It has reached to that point in time, producing stuffs is not as important as making money. Kids want to be rich. Heck, we all want to be rich. We like to have the sufficient spending power to do things that we actually want - to be richer. While that happens, less people are actually looking into who makes our butter anymore. As long it's available at any supermarket near you, you'll keep on earning money, to buy more butter - to live. Have you watched Food, Inc? I just think that if smarter people in this world keep going into the money-making stuffs, guess who's the idiot been handling our McDonald's Big Mac.

Ok, I'm tired now. Maybe I'll continue next time. For the mean time, my message is just really simple - we're here on Earth to make butter - not guns. Guns do not benefit the very human civilization - butters do.

But guns keep human in order I give you that - nothing more.